Where did all the funny ads go? I can't remember the last time one cracked me up even a little

They left with all the talented creatives they fired because they were too old

Our industry did it.

In the mid 2000s, you couldn’t work at a great agency if you couldn’t write comedy TV.

Then people who couldn’t write comedy TV climbed up on soap boxes, declaring that “TV is dead,” offering their digital solutions as alternatives. Clients and agencies listened, afraid to be left behind. Most of those digital solutions have since come and gone. And a generation of “digital creatives” never learned how to write.

Award shows became obsessed with ideas that revolved around public service. You could win one Lion for your spot…or twelve Lions for your activation that raises awareness about a given cause. A generation of creatives learned that the gold standard in advertising is putting braille on your Mastercard or creating an AR filter that replaces statues of bad people with statues of good people. But they didn’t learn how to write.

Creatives who won a lot of awards for cause-based ideas quickly rose to the tops of agencies. And they encouraged their best creative teams to focus on more cause-based ideas in the hopes of winning more awards. Brand building became an afterthought and lesser creatives were left to write the Chase Bank ads. No one cared about making them better, so no one learned how to write.

Social had been taking over, and brand KPIs were often all about engagement. So social creatives quickly learned that likes and comments come more easily when you simply imitate trends created by other people rather than coming up with original content. Another generation of creatives didn’t learn how to write.

New leaders became CEOs at the holding company agencies. They began to accept weaker and weaker financial terms from clients, then looked at their shrinking balance sheets and reacted by pushing out all the seasoned and expensive creative leaders who actually do know how to write.

Those seasoned creative leaders began to start their own independent shops, that are now frequently stealing business from holding company agencies. And lo and behold, many of them are now, again, writing and creating funny TV spots.

Of course TV spots can be pre-roll on YouTube, or commercial breaks on streaming platforms, and as people spend more time than ever cooped up at home, looking at screens, it’s safe to say that “TV” never died. Video is still very much the thing.

And now everyone is declaring that comedy is back! Because by all measures, great comedy is still what resonates best with actual audiences and consumers. I’m glad that for some of us, it never went away.

Clients are the number 1 reason why funny ads went away. They stopped buying them, became afraid of making anything not bland and tested and consultant recommended with their product being jammed down viewers throat in the first 6 seconds. Most commercials these days usually treat the audience like idiots. Humor doesn’t work like that. Add the fact that ad industry only celebrates performative cause driven, fake work, doesn’t help matters. I haven’t laughed during the Super Bowl in 5 or 6 years. That Michael Cera stuff was pretty funny though.

The state of design is in a much worse place than broadcast advertising

I still see plenty of attempts at humor in broadcast spots, the jokes just fall flat.

Sometimes it seems as if they got watered down by committee/client/groupthink, but I think there’s another factor to consider.

A lot of creatives just aren’t as funny as we think we are.

We might have great taste in movies and quote dialogue from our fav comedies to each other.

We might quip on the zoom call before the meeting starts to break the ice and elicit some smiles.

But comedy is hard. Go to an open mic night at your local comedy club. Be prepared to cringe. Hell, go on a Friday night when the veteran comedians are on stage, you’ll still see some struggling.

Look at all the lame comedic misfires on streaming platforms that aren’t worth watching. Those were written by professionals who specialize in making funny things for the screen.

So expecting a copywriter who spends the bulk of their time writing presentation decks and an art director who’s very skilled at digital layouts to make funny short films that simultaneously convey the brand pillars and communicate value propositions is going to yield disappointing results.

They fired those amazing designers too, in favor of kids who “grew up with social media” and work much cheaper.

New Tubi spots from mischief made me laugh

thought the same but the geico armadillo ad made me laugh

But what about this SILLY MUSIC whaaooooo!

A few reasons:
1- cmos are dorks that want to be “cool” and want their brand to be “cool like apple”. (Despite Apple lizard being “funny”)
2-consumers don’t want to be funny, especially gen z, they too are extremely insecure and want to be “cool”, least funny people I’ve ever worked with (sorry it’s true)
3-Clients stopped running multi spot campaign ads. Agencies sold them on heartfelt brand films and social activations. Without media suites that feature multiple 15s and 30s with distinct RTBs to build funny around, it’s become hard to justify comedy formulas
4- there is funny work being made. But it often skews funny-weird, the most recent fruit by the foot, mischiefs work, etc…..the usual hitters geico , progressive, have all kinda backed further into their campaigns

the take5 oil change work is one of the last truly funny things I’ve seen.